Railway crosstie



l May 27, 1930.

G. w. coRRlGAN 1,760,231

RAILWAY CROSS TIE Filed Aug. 19, 1929 9 `|\A T\ H o :hi

l-lu /o :I -7 /o 77' A ttorney Patented May 27, 1930 GEORGE WASHINGTON COBR-GAN, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA RAELWAY CROSSTIE Application filed August 19, 1929. Serial No. 388,878.

This invention relates broadly to improvements in cross ties for supporting the rails of railways, and has as its primary object the provision of cross ties provided at the ends thereof with angle irons secured thereto, each of said angle irons having one flange thereof extending' longitudinally of the tie along the sides of the tie at the bottom of the tie, the inner end of the angle iron terminating inwardly from the transverse center line. of the tie, and the other 'flange of the angle iron being secured to the bottom of the tie.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a metal protection for the lower edges of the tie, whereby the edges are protected against wear, and the protectors being' so designed, of angle-shaped formation that the metal of which the protector is formed will not in any way interfere with electrical appliances, signals and so forth by acting as conductors for carrying current from the rails to the wet ballast upon which the rail is supported to the other rails, or from one rail to the other rail.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent duringthe following description taken in connection with the drawings, wherein Figure 1 is side elevation of a tie equipped wit-h protectors constructed in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is a view partly in section and partlv in elevation, fully illustrating the application of my invention to the tie.

With reference more in detail to the drawings, it will be seen that the reference character 5 designates generally the tie, and the tie may be formed of wood and is of the usual shape and size. Seated in the usual well known manner on the top surface of the tie inwardly from the end of the tie are the conventional rails, designated generally by the reference character 6-6.

Secured at the lower edges of the tie, and at the ends of the tie are the protector' members designated generally by the reference character 7 Each of these protector' members 7 is in the nature of an angle iron, one flange 8 thereof, which flange 8 may be designated as the horizontal flange, is disposed beneath the bottom of the tie against the bottom surface of the tie, while the other or vertical tlange 9 of the angle iron is disposed at the adjacent side of the tie.

Each of the flanges o f the angle irons is provided with suitably spaced longitudinally alined openings, and through these openings, and adapted to be embedded in the tie 5, are screws, boltsvor other similar and suitable fastening elements 10.

It is to be noted that these angle irons are of such a length as to extend inwardly from the ends of the tie and to terminate ata point to one side of the middle of the tie, thus leaving aA portion of the tie uncovered.

` The protectors 7 which of course are shown arranged in pairs, each member of the pair being disposed to one side of the tie 5 having their horizontal flanges 8 extending inwardly to terminate in spaced parallelism thus leaving a portion of the bottom surface of the tie intermediate the protector members uncovered.

Likewise the vertical flanges of the angle irons extend upwardly only a sufficient distance along the sides of the ties to protect the lower edge of the ties. Thus it will be seen that these angle iron protectors are especially designed to cover no more of the bottom surface of the tie, than is necessary to accomplish the purpose of protecting the lower edges or corners of the tie.

As is well known in the art, it is necessary that a considerable surface of the bottom of the tie come in Contact with the ballast on which it rests, so that the section of tie against the ballast will hold the track in line, particularly on curves.

Often, track ties vary in width, as they come from the -mills, and before they are ready to be assembled in building a track, for it is not possible to always have at hand an exact fitting channel as the trade made would be incapable of application to track ties of varying sizes.

Obviously, when using trade made channels, either inserts would be necessary for a width less than the width of the channels, or on the otherhand, the tie may be of a width greater than the channel, when the tie would have to be altered to meet this variation in width, which is not practicable with treated ties.

The angle iron protector is designed to al'- ford the greatest protection for the less cost, they are simple to apply, inexpensive, and Save much' labor. Ties that are already in track may have the angle iron protectors ap- Dlied thereto in an easy and expeditious inanner, and while I have shown the angle bars secured to the bottom of the ties with screws or bolts, it is obvious that it is not absolutely necessary for so securing the angles thereto. The bolts extending through the angles and the sides of the tie will be sufficient for securing' the angles t0 the ties.

v Minor changes coming within the lield of invention claimed, may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Havingr thus described my invention, what I claim as new is A railway tie having secured thereto at its opposite ends and at each side thereof, angle bars, the angle bars on one side of this tie havingr their horizontal flanges disposed in spaced parallelism with the adjacent angle` bars on the other side of the tie, and the an gle bars being secured to the tie at one end thereof having` their inner ends disposed in spaced relation to the inner opposed ends ofthe angle bars secured to the tie at the opposite end of said tie, whereby certain portions of the tie may be left unprotected.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CORRIGAN. 

